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Deconstructing the galaxy stellar mass function with UKIDSS and CANDELS: the impact of colour, structure and environment

Mortlock, Alice ; Conselice, Christopher. J. ; Hartley, William G. ; Duncan, Ken ; Lani, Caterina ; Ownsworth, Jamie R. ; Almaini, Omar ; Wel, Arjen van der ; Huang, Kuang-Han ; Ashby, Matthew L. N. ; Willner, S. P. ; Fontana, Adriano ; Dekel, Avishai ; Koekemoer, Anton M. ; Ferguson, Harry C. ; Faber, Sandra M. ; Grogin, Norman A. ; Kocevski, Dale D.

In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2014, vol. 447, no. 1, p. 2-24

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    Titre
    • Deconstructing the galaxy stellar mass function with UKIDSS and CANDELS: the impact of colour, structure and environment
    Auteur
    • Mortlock, Alice. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD UK
    • Conselice, Christopher. J.. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD UK
    • Hartley, William G.. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD UK
    • Duncan, Ken. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD UK
    • Lani, Caterina. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD UK
    • Ownsworth, Jamie R.. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD UK
    • Almaini, Omar. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD UK
    • Wel, Arjen van der. Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, Germany
    • Huang, Kuang-Han. Department of Physics, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA
    • Ashby, Matthew L. N.. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
    • Willner, S. P.. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
    • Fontana, Adriano. INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, I-00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
    • Dekel, Avishai. Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
    • Koekemoer, Anton M.. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
    • Ferguson, Harry C.. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
    • Faber, Sandra M.. UCO/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
    • Grogin, Norman A.. UCO/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
    • Kocevski, Dale D.. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Anglais
    Publié dans
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2014, vol. 447, no. 1, p. 2-24. Oxford University Press
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:299461
    Summary
    We combine photometry from the Ultra Deep Survey (UDS), Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) UDS and CANDELS the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South (GOODS-S) surveys to construct the galaxy stellar mass function probing both the low- and high-mass end accurately in the redshift range 0.326.0), affording us robust measures of structural parameters. We construct stellar mass functions for the entire sample as parametrized by the Schechter function, and find that there is a decline in the values of ϕ and of α with higher redshifts, and a nearly constant M* up to z∼3. We divide the galaxy stellar mass function by colour, structure, and environment and explore the links between environmental overdensity, morphology, and the quenching of star formation. We find that a double Schechter function describes galaxies with high Sérsic index (n>2.5), similar to galaxies which are red or passive. The low-mass end of the n>2.5 stellar mass function is dominated by blue galaxies, whereas the high-mass end is dominated by red galaxies. This shows that there is a possible link between morphological evolution and star formation quenching in high mass galaxies, which is not seen in lower mass systems. This in turn suggests that there are strong mass-dependent quenching mechanisms. In addition, we find that the number density of high-mass systems is elevated in dense environments, suggesting that an environmental process is building up massive galaxies quicker in over densities than in lower densities